Computer scientists from Brown University and the University of Texas–Austin visited NASA’s Johnson Space Center for a week-long hackathon to provide computers and tablets with a simple web interface that can operate complex systems for the remote control of robots.

A new collaboration between sleep researchers and engineers at Brown University, funded by the National Science Foundation, may be the first step toward “smart lighting” that tunes the interior environment — the wavelength, intensity, direction, and other factors of artificial light — to accommodate human biological rhythms of sleep and wakefulness.

Nursing homes that invest in “culture change” can develop a more residential and less hospital-like feel. Culture change also allows residents and front-line care workers more of a say in how homes operate. A new study finds that the practice produces important benefits in quality of care, but only when the changes are implemented extensively.

In a new study researchers show that they could make faint sensations more vivid by triggering a brain rhythm that appears to shift sensory attention. The study in mice, reported in <em>Nature Neuroscience</em>, provides the first direct evidence that the brain’s “gamma” rhythms have a causal role in processing the sense of touch.

As parts of Africa continue to battle the outbreak of Ebola virus, protective equipment — masks, gowns, gloves and more — are at a premium for front-line health workers. Infectious disease staff at Brown and The Miriam Hospital have chipped in, purchased supplies, and sent them to health workers in Liberia.

Terrible suffering in Western Africa has refocused the world’s attention on Ebola viruses, for which there is no vaccine or cure. The viruses are masters of their attack, but researchers are working hard to fight them, said Dr. Ian Michelow, who has studied an approach.

In a letter to the campus community today, President Christina Paxson announced that Beppie Huidekoper, executive vice president for finance and administration, will retire in February 2015 after 12 years of service.

Many HIV-negative gay or bisexual men in steady relationships with other HIV-negative men don’t always use condoms out of a desire for intimacy. That same desire, according to a new study, makes such men more inclined to use antiretroviral medications to prevent getting HIV, a practice known as PrEP.

The Guantánamo Public Memory Project is an international traveling exhibition, co-curated by Brown students, that seeks to broaden the public perception and history of the U.S. naval station in Cuba. The exhibition, with a series of corresponding events, opens in Providence Tuesday, Sept 2, 2014.